Radio Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Radio Day (Russian: День радио), Communications Workers' Day (as it is officially known in Russia) or Radio and Television Day (Ден на радиото и телевизията, as it is known in Bulgaria) is a commemoration of the invention of radio in Russia. It takes place on May 7, the day in 1895 on which Alexander Popov successfully demonstrated his invention.

[edit] 1895 demonstration

In 1895 Popov gave the first public demonstration of radio as a tool, using Sir Oliver Lodge's coherer as a lightning detector before the Russian Physical and Chemical Society in St. Petersburg.

[edit] Commemoration

Radio Day was first observed in the Soviet Union in 1945, on the 50th anniversary of Popov's experiment, and some four decades after his death. Popov has generally been honored in Eastern Europe as the "inventor of radio", in contrast with the West's so crediting of Guglielmo Marconi or sometimes Nikola Tesla. The day is still officially marked in Russia and Bulgaria.